Radar (also referred to as radio detection and ranging) is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine, among other things, the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used, for example, to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. Radars have been used in many applications, including autonomous driving systems (e.g., autonomous vehicle), air and terrestrial traffic control, air-defense systems, antimissile systems, aircraft anti-collision systems, ocean surveillance systems, and the like.
As previously discussed, radar has been utilized for measuring the velocity of objects. Unlike a light detection and range (LIDAR) system or a camera system, however, radar has not been utilized for objection classification. The main reason is due to the lack of (or insufficient) radar data available for machine learning (i.e., to train a set of rules, algorithms, and/or predictive models). As an example, for an autonomous driving application, in order to generate and collect sufficient radar data for machine learning, a vehicle having a radar system mounted thereon would need to be driven through numerous locations which is an exhausting and time-consuming process.